


echo's across the water

by Woodswolf



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: FIRST ECHO ZANE FANFICTION GET HYPE, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Season/Series 06 Spoilers, Spoilers, also my husbando is problematic? everybody wins!, i love this little ball of suffering he's so pure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 23:25:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5804338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woodswolf/pseuds/Woodswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“…There’s a world beyond our island,” Father begins. “Beautiful and terrible. I’ve seen it myself. And you… you’re all I have left to remember it by. Like an echo across the water.”</i>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>In which Echo Zane is a precious cinnamon roll and I suffer while thinking about his existence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	echo's across the water

**Author's Note:**

> Um, if you haven't seen Episode 62, you've already been spoiled just by reading the description. So... probably go watch that? I mean, I can't stop you, this is just a suggestion, but... XD

_“I’m sorry…”_

_“Father?”_

* * *

“Hello, Echo.”

He blinks. Once. Twice. What was that voice?

There’s a man. White hair. Round glasses. _Father._

Father is talking. Maybe he can try talking too?

…He can’t seem to form words.

He’ll try again later.

* * *

The stairs are bad.

Maybe it was bad footing or maybe it was stairs just hating him, but now his arm is gone. It’s sitting on the floor next to him, and he’s just staring at it.

Father comes down to help him. Gets him to his feet. Brings him back up the stairs. Goes back down and grabs the arm. Tells him to sit on the chair and stay still, and that it might feel weird for a little bit.

It doesn’t hurt very much. But it does feel weird like Father said.

He’s a lot more careful on the stairs after that.

* * *

He likes the water. Father tells him to not go very close, that he could get washed away, and that there are bad things in the water that could be scary.

But he likes the water, so they still go down to the water every now and then.

And it’s on one of the specific days that they go down to the water that he learns something about himself.

“Echo… do you want to know why I named you that?”

He thinks about it for a moment, but the answer is obvious. “Yes.”

His father sighs and looks off at the waves. “You’re named after everything that’s not here.”

He looks at his father for a long moment. Blinks. Tilts his head to the side. “I don’t understand.”

“…There’s a world beyond our island,” Father begins. “Beautiful and terrible. I’ve seen it myself. And you… you’re all I have left to remember it by. Like an echo across the water.”

His name is Echo.

He likes that.

* * *

“You know, you have a brother.”

Echo blinks. Turns. Blinks again. “Really?”

Father smiles. “Yes, you do.”

Now it’s Echo’s turn to smile. “Can I meet him? Where is he?”

_Something…_ on his father’s face… _breaks._

“…I don’t know.”

* * *

There’s a huge storm that threatens to blow the entire tower over, so they hide away in the hidden basement until, several days later, it seems to clear. Father warns him to stay in the basement; he heard something crash in the night and wants to make sure it’s safe.

So Echo stays.

It’s several hours later, when the sky has already begun to fade, by the time he comes back.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“…Father?”

“I’m so, so sorry,” Father repeats. “I love you, and I’m sorry, but your brother’s here, and he’s come to take me home.”

* * *

Feet pound down the stairs and the door slams with a tremendous bang.

Echo knows that it’s safe to go out now.

So he does. He goes back up to the attic room, the place he was created, and he watches his father leave.

He waves them off. They’re on another adventure now, one that he’ll probably never learn about. But that’s fine. Echo’s okay right here, in the only home he’s ever known.

He was made here, and he just knows that he’s supposed to stay here. He doesn’t understand how, or why, but…

He knows.

He knows, and that’s enough.

* * *

Julien stands on the back deck of the Destiny’s Bounty, staring back in the direction they came from. The tower.

Zane walks up behind him, slowly, carefully. “What are you doing?”

Julien smiles. “Looking back at everything,” he says. “Echo’s across the water.”

**Author's Note:**

> FIRST EVER ECHO ZANE FANFICTION GET HYPE
> 
> honestly im probably gonna end up writing about this child a lot..... he's too pure.......


End file.
